The future of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights has become a hot topic of debate, after the Israel Defense Forces pushed troops and tanks over the border into Syrian territory.

Residents of a Syrian village near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights say Israeli forces have set up a position in an abandoned army base and are preventing local farmers from accessing their fields.

The Golan Heights, situated in the southwest corner of Syria and bordering Israel, Lebanon and Jordan, is a 1,000 square mile rocky plateau around 40 miles (60 kilometres) from Damascus, although it possesses a significance far beyond that and has been a political flashpoint for decades.

The Israeli government decided on Sunday to double its population on the occupied Golan Heights while saying threats from Syria remained despite the moderate tone of rebel leaders who ousted President Bashar al-Assad.

The Israeli government announced on Sunday plans to accelerate settlement expansion in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

Israel approved a more than $11 million plan on Sunday to double its population in the annexed Golan Heights, where some 31,000 Israeli settlers already live alongside roughly 24,000 Druze.

The United Nations Security Council on Friday extended a long-running peacekeeping mission between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights for six months and expressed concern that military activities in the area could escalate tensions.

Does Israel's seizure of Syrian territory serve temporary security goals? Or is it a permanent land grab that might thwart future friendly ties with Syria's new rulers and diplomatic relations with other Arab countries?